Room data sheets provide a comprehensive overview of the building’s requirements. They are crucial in the design, planning, and project development. They support communication, quality control, and facilitate change management.

They are usually developed during the briefing phase (architectural programming in the US) of the project, to outline the their explanation clients’ requirements for each type of space. They then serve as the basis for a specification to help contractors and design teams comprehend what is expected from the spaces, and to ensure that the proposed solution is in line with the requirements of the client.

Typically architects create room data sheets through interviews with their clients and stakeholders. They are often a work in progress and can remain a ‘living document’ until the design team have agreed to the final version.

When creating a data sheet for a space, it is important to classify the items you create as ‘general’ or “specific”. For example, a general requirement could be that an office must be soundproofed at a certain amount, while the specific requirements might include things like:

Layer’s digital room data sheets and predefined listlists allow you to gather all required information in an organized and efficient manner. This can help designers to think in a systematic manner about the various requirements that could be required, thus reducing the possibility of overlooking something. In addition, when you connect your room data sheets to an IFC floor plan you can generate automatic adjacency diagrams to see how requirements are translated into spatial solutions.